While this piece is thoughtful and well-written, capturing many of the complexities and tensions which surround similar phenomena of gentrification in cities throughout the country, the use of the term “urban pioneer” is extremely problematic. “Urban pioneer” is shorthand for an imagined urban reality in which no one exists until the (mostly) white, (mostly) middle-to-upper class transplants arrive. Additionally, it relies on the concept of the “pioneer” to do so: one which, in itself, is all tied up in ideas about manifest destiny, the supposed “vacancy” of North America prior to European colonialism, and so on. Particularly as accompanying the description presented here (one which describes, for example, long-standing Irish, Italian, and African-American social establishments - would these “pioneers” or “natives” in the analogy?) the use of this term does a serious disservice to the nuanced perspective put forward in the piece.
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Fulop has done an excellent job investing in parks, building new schools, renovating public assets, and providing summer jobs for youth. Enhancing the quality of life in a neighborhood (and increasing its tax base) benefits all residents, not just the few at the top. New York City is able to pay for Universal Pre-K and new affordable housing because of its strong tax base. Developing on parking lots and old industrial sites isn't pushing people out, it is increasing density and making the city more affordable. In addition, Jersey City has rent control, which prevents long-time residents from getting massive rent increases. We should be embracing the positive change rather than being nostalgic for some romanticized past. Left unmentioned is that Jersey City is now the most diverse city in the country.
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For an insider look at downtown and beyond @thecornertablejc. There is way more to JC than is mentioned in this article. As the most diverse city in the US there is far more than meets the eye. Take the PATH over on a gorgeous sunny day and venture around.
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I moved from Brooklyn to JC just about two years ago. I do agree that the article seems to focus almost exclusively on downtown. I live in Journal Square, near the PATH and most of what they describe it not (yet) happening in my immediate neighborhood, although the first Kushner high rise just opened and a Starbuck is being built right now at the PATh station. Most of my neighbors are middle class immigrants with a few long-time Irish American residents. I see the parallels to Brooklyn just about every day, and perhaps the best metaphor for gentrification is the prevalence of dive bars. Freddie's and Jackie's Fifth Amendment shuttered in BK. Here's to hoping the Golden Cicada or the Journal Square Pub can stay open and that JC doesn't suffer the same fate as BK in general.
8
I was born and raised in Jersey City, part of an extended family that could trace its roots to the Russoniello Bakery on 3rd Street in the Ninth Ward. Like Manhattan, Jersey City keeps reinventing itself, from its earliest days as a Dutch settlement, to a major railroad connection and gateway to NYC, to a critically important component of Wall Street and international finance.
Through it all, I hope, the energy and good humor of its residents have kept them proud, preventing them from becoming smug and complacent. Ever hear of anyone leaving Jersey City for New York City? Fuggetaboutit!
Through it all, I hope, the energy and good humor of its residents have kept them proud, preventing them from becoming smug and complacent. Ever hear of anyone leaving Jersey City for New York City? Fuggetaboutit!
7
My grandparents lived in JC on Cambridge Ave, in the same house my grandfather was born in on October 8, 1882. During the 50's and 60's, whenever we would visit, three generations of girls would spend the afternoon strolling along "The Avenue". Being a kid, the highlight of those afternoons was being treated to an Italian icee before heading back to the house. If I remember correctly, the only flavor available was lemon, which was fine with me. Is the icee cart vendor still parked up on "The Avenue", or is that also gone?
4
The cruel joke is that the residents of all these high-rise developments are being told they will have the convenience of being “a few subway stops away” from Manhattan. In reality, the present is bleak due to the legacy of Governor Christy’s canceling the subway extension and the current over-capacity of PATH and tunnel and bridge access. The immediate future is even bleaker: major disruptive rebuilding projects in the immediate future and beyond are required to repair this aging system.
In broader terms, the New York-New Jersey joint economy is being strangled by its transportation bottlenecks and will require major public work projects. The latter, once started, will take a decade to complete. We haven’t started. The workers will bear the burden of this hidden tax of the resulting commuting misery.
In broader terms, the New York-New Jersey joint economy is being strangled by its transportation bottlenecks and will require major public work projects. The latter, once started, will take a decade to complete. We haven’t started. The workers will bear the burden of this hidden tax of the resulting commuting misery.
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I grew up in Hudson County and lived in either Bayonne or Jersey City until I moved to Northern Vermont in 1980. Over the years the gentrification and vast changes outlined in the piece were more obvious each time I returned but nothing in the world could make me want to move back - ever. Watching authenticity relegated to tiny islands (The Golden Cicada) in a sea of inexorable cookie cutter "development" only makes the city more like everywhere else...whoopie. I just got in from a 90-minute walk during which I listened to spring peepers and a pair of loons while a bald eagle circled one of the glorious Glaciel ponds in that permeate the area. The reason I love where I live is that it is precisely not like everywhere else and it's articles such as this that reinforce my getting out as best decision I ever made.
6
I'm a native NYer who's lived in JC for almost 20 years. It's distressing to read this headline and then the inaccurate and unbalanced reporting. The article makes it seem as if JC is rising from the ashes, a lovely phoenix, which simply isn't true. Development is happening in a narrow area, and benefiting a narrow group of people. In general, the people who tout the new restaurants and shops are owners of other new restaurants and shops with vested interests in making the place seem grand. And the "restaurant row" and nightlife threaten to make downtown like Hoboken's Washington Street. Fulop's answer to new development at sky high prices is to add a little low income housing and some new or improved parks. The middle class and working class get nothing. Why no new housing, no mixed income housing? My local supermarket never reopened after Sandy, and I now have to take a cab back from a market. And no one talks about the pressure the new housing puts on local public transportation, not to mention the loss of bus lines serving people not living downtown. This article completely ignores those of us who don't live in downtown. It's also got the decades wrong (e.g., yuppies were already snapping up Hoboken brownstones in the early/mid 80s). I get that corruption and powerful real estate interests have stacked the deck against ordinary JC residents. it's more disappointing that the Times has become their mouthpiece.
11
This article mentions that Jersey City is nearly as big as Manhattan and then only talks about a small section of town as if that is Jersey City. It's like writing about Manhattan through the exclusive lens of Times Square. Curbed magazine calling Jersey City a neighborhood is crazy. It's a small city with a bunch of different neighborhoods ,
There is some beauty and history in all JC neighborhoods as well as poverty and crime. and TRASH. For the love of God the trash problem needs solving.
I agree with other comments regarding the terrible tax abatement deals and there is no discussion of economically mixed housing like there is across the river.
The comment that statedd the schools are horrible. That's not universally true. McNair High School (public) is one of the best high schools in the entire US. Their pre-k program is a god send for parents. So there are terrible schools middling schools and good schools.
Agreed with other comments that Hudson County and NJ in general need to get the corruption under control.
There is some beauty and history in all JC neighborhoods as well as poverty and crime. and TRASH. For the love of God the trash problem needs solving.
I agree with other comments regarding the terrible tax abatement deals and there is no discussion of economically mixed housing like there is across the river.
The comment that statedd the schools are horrible. That's not universally true. McNair High School (public) is one of the best high schools in the entire US. Their pre-k program is a god send for parents. So there are terrible schools middling schools and good schools.
Agreed with other comments that Hudson County and NJ in general need to get the corruption under control.
3
I've lived in JC for the past 10 years...in the nicer part of the ghetto. Downtown is another country. A stranger there could conceivably believe that almost no black people live in JC.
On my block, certain groups are slightly overpaying elderly, long time residents for houses that have a too high tax bill...with cash...then renting them for a so-so profit, and waiting for home prices to skyrocket in 3 or 4 years. Or, better yet, buying adjoining single family properties with plans to tear down and then build multi unit apartment buildings.
The Times should write about what is happening to folks that don't live downtown in Kushnerville.
On my block, certain groups are slightly overpaying elderly, long time residents for houses that have a too high tax bill...with cash...then renting them for a so-so profit, and waiting for home prices to skyrocket in 3 or 4 years. Or, better yet, buying adjoining single family properties with plans to tear down and then build multi unit apartment buildings.
The Times should write about what is happening to folks that don't live downtown in Kushnerville.
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There is one thing I take issue with. The statement that Downtown JC is two or three years away from becoming Hoboken. Well please allow me to offer this: Hoboken is a veritable dump, having changed little outside of its waterfront in this Century. The streets themselves are in horrible shape and the only decent parts are along the brand new waterfront that hold no tradition whatsoever. Downtown Jersey City, on the other hand, is a cleaner, better maintained, more livable place with trees and parks, open spaces interspersed, a marina, a Hudson waterfront directly opposite One World Trade Center and Ferries galore. Best of all, the sidewalks don't smell of stale beer on a Monday morning like they do in Hoboken. To me, Hoboken remains a demented Upper Westside stuck in the 80s.
5
Cicada is my madeline. Nostalgia for what was before we were forcibly homogenized. Introduce local government to real estate developers who serve the one percent. They discover common interests.
4
All I read was a bunch of bellyaching about the supposed downside of economic regulation. More reporting and less libertarian claptrap would be nice.
1
Would've liked more details about the gentrification than hearing about the bars and liquor licenses so much but I got the gist through Tan's story. I predict the major metropolitan portions of NJ will go the way of so many places in NY, people who built and nurtured these neighborhoods when nobody else wanted them are now being thanklessly priced out. It is a nightmare for so many and what are politicians like Steve Fulop doing about it? Nothing.
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Ex downtown JC resident. Lived there for 13 yrs in the Paulus Hook section in a rent-controlled apt, moved in 2016. When I first moved there, downtown JC was gritty, hardly anyone lived there and only 20 min to manhattan on path train, rents were cheap. As the years went on, I watched the gentrification take hold. The warehouse full of artist studios - razed to make way for a luxury highrise. Families moved in, which made for more people. A mural by Shepherd Fairey overlooking Grove st, which in no way reflected the diverse cultures of JC. I was done after that thing went up. JC is weird, as it is a large city. If one leaves the downtown area, most of the city is just ugh and good portions I would consider slums. The healthcare is absolute crap (I always went to drs in manhattan), the food is mediocre at best. Maybe that is changing, but there is an underlying mindset that pervades alot of the people in JC and it is everything must be cheap! If I could sum up downtown JC in one word it would be mediocre. Which was fine when one was paying cheap rent, but not so fine when the rent prices are not so much lower than across the river.
10
I lived in Jersey City in the 1980s. 250,000 residents and ONE "book store" (the gift shop in the Path station, which also sold cheap paperbacks). Even the drug dealers were afraid of the neighborhood!
It's bittersweet to see the area booming. On the one hand, it's physically one of the loveliest areas of the region, and it's good to see it serving as a safe and welcoming home to people who can appreciate it. On the other hand... it had a lot of character back in the day, which is clearly disappearing.
It's bittersweet to see the area booming. On the one hand, it's physically one of the loveliest areas of the region, and it's good to see it serving as a safe and welcoming home to people who can appreciate it. On the other hand... it had a lot of character back in the day, which is clearly disappearing.
6
The taxes in Jersey City are outrageous. The crooked politicians (always democrat) ruined the city. Yes, you can purchase a high rise and right around the corner is a slum. I would never choose to live there no matter how convenient to NYC.
9
Nothing is said here about the fueling of development by extensive property tax abatements. The city and county do get their money back through PILOTS, but the property disappears from the school tax rolls, "justifying" Jersey City's claims to be a stressed district and then receiving disproportionate state school aid--benefiting all property owners in the town, including Mayor Fulop.
6
While this is true it should be pointed out that more office construction has led to more income tax being paid to the state of NJ. Yes JC is gaming the system but there should be a full accounting. Those who live in NJ and work in NYC do not pay NJ income tax and that should be a point in deciding who is subsidizing who.
1
I stopped at "The enduring flair and uniqueness of Jersey City". Really. As a Hudson county resident for twenty years, from 75 to 95, ten years in Hoboken, that's a funny thing to say. I really tried to find something to like in that town, but never did. Flair? Where? You had to get on the Path to find flair.
And Hoboken burned in the 70s, not the eighties. By the eighties, the "luxury condo" gentrification was in full swing.
And Hoboken burned in the 70s, not the eighties. By the eighties, the "luxury condo" gentrification was in full swing.
8
I moved from Jersey City three years ago and miss it. It was a wonderful and quiet place to live yet only minutes from Manhattan. Mayor Steve Fulop was and is a breath of fresh air. I only wish we had more sincerely engaged, unselfish and motivated politicians like him.
5
I lived near Basking Ridge in Morris County, a beautiful part of New Jersey. Often tell folks who travel through NJ to get to NYC, if they demolished Newark and Jersey City, NJ would be a wonderful place.
2
"If they demolished Newark and Jersey City NJ would be a wonderful place?" Be careful dear, you are edging the line of promoting racial cleansing.
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Actually, Basking Ridge is in Somerset County, so I doubt you ever lived there.
6
Then it's probably good you don't live here because you wouldn't like it.
7
Nice piece with a bit of balance, respecting the old without demonizing the new. This is the quality of journalism I expect from the New York Times.
9
I live in this neighborhood and, having lived in NYC previously, can say it's a miserable place to live as most of the restaurants in downtown JC are pitiful (including Talde, just look at Yelp it's a mediocre 3.5) and the newer buildings are cheaply constructed. There also isn't a single legitimate walkable supermarket in downtown JC. The schools are also terrible.
The only reason the rents are high is because it's a reasonable alternative to living in lower Manhattan if you work crazy hours in one of those terrible banks.
On the plus side, I was told that the elevator for the Grove PATH stop (which has been under construction since 2015) might complete this year?
I look forward to leaving here.
The only reason the rents are high is because it's a reasonable alternative to living in lower Manhattan if you work crazy hours in one of those terrible banks.
On the plus side, I was told that the elevator for the Grove PATH stop (which has been under construction since 2015) might complete this year?
I look forward to leaving here.
10
Nice to see that the Golden Cicada fought off eminent domain but St. Peter's Prep, that want his land, also stuck it out in that neighborhood when some wanted to move the school to the suburbs. Now the Paulus Hook section they are in is really nice.
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I remember that fight, when some wanted to move the Prep to the suburbs. Glad that Prep stuck it out, that my son was able to graduate from there, even though I did not. I grew up in that area, and I moved out in the early 70's, because it was no longer a safe place to raise a family. Sad, but true. BTW, had my dad held onto his multi-family building, I would now be riding a gravy train. Who knew?
6